Thursday, March 31, 2016

Michael - Thursday

Photos - Jonathan Everitt

Since sadly we no longer have Lisa Brackman telling us about
China, I thought I’d try to fill the gap this week with a look at the Nan Hua
Temple. Nan Hua means Southern Flower in
Mandarin, but don’t confuse Nan Hua temple with its namesake in China
which is more than 1000 years older.

This Nan Hua is near the Johannesburg
international airport and is about twenty-five years young. The order itself is young only dating to 1967
when Hsing Yun established “Humanistic Buddhism,” or Fo Guang Shan, in Taiwan.
Unusually for Buddhist orders, this one’s mission is to spread the enlightened
word of the Buddha far and wide and—as Hsing Yun put it— “bring the Buddha’s light
to the Three Realms, so that the Dharma waters may flow throughout the Five
Continents.” 250 orders with over 1300
monks now exist worldwide after only 50 years.

In fact, Nan Hua dates to 1991 when the rather conservative
and, of course, white male chairman of the Bronkhorstspruit city council—Dr. Senekal—visited
Taiwan seeking investment, and met Hsing Yun himself. Impressed with Taiwan and their business
investment, the following year he organised a donation of 30 acres of city land
to the order to set up a branch in South Africa. About US$6 million was raised here from the not insignificant Taiwanese community and also from the order itself in Taiwan to construct the
temple. Not only is it the headquarters
of the order in Africa, it's also the largest Buddhist temple in Africa.

One of the attractive things about the order here is that
while it naturally sees itself spreading the knowledge of its religion, it's proud of its
local status. African monks and followers form a diverse community. It's website mentions with pride that 95% of the
materials used in the construction of the temple were sourced locally. It offers food and accommodation, and had a joyous
Chinese New Year celebration last month—with red for luck everywhere—attended
by thousands. Its charitable work is
directed at the poor local communities in the area, providing sensible things that they
need.

If you're interested in learning more, they have a useful
website, and it even gives you tips on how to begin meditation if a novice, including the lighting, the timing relative to your meal, and concluding with
advice not to sit where there is a draft to avoid catching a cold.

Not everyone was delighted, however. On the 30th
October 2002, a group of extremist white supremacists of the Boeremag plotted
to destroy the temple. In a re-enactment
of the Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot, they secreted explosives in the basement below
the main hall of worship. Fortunately,
the detonator failed to set off the explosives - the blast would have killed 150 people from around the country and the
world who were attending a ceremony at that time in the hall above.

The South Africa constitution guarantees freedom of worship.
We have various Christian churches,
mosques, synagogues, Churches of Latter Day Saints, Seventh Day Adventists, Buddhist
and Hindu temples, and probably places of worship of every other religion you
care to mention. They all seem to get on
with their own business and not interfere with the others. Our politicians - for all their varied failings - don't make an issue of it.

Staying away from the candidate discussion, I will just say how interesting I find this. And how happy I am that the local terrorists were not able to explode their bomb. HOORAY for humanism--Buddhist or otherwise.